Looks Like Christmas

Although I grew up cutting our own tree down from the Santa Cruz mountains (and have a poison ivy horror story to go with), the last few years we have taken all but a whopping fifteen minutes to drive to the neighborhood fire station, find a tree, and back to our house to complete the whole tree experience.

This year we truly found the perfect tree! We went with an 8-foot Douglas Fir (we splurged in the height department this year). I am amazed at how it's not lopsided or unequally proportioned from any angle. Symmetry does wonders for my soul. To complete the putting-up-the-tree experience, Ryan put on Christmas music and made his homemade hot cocoa and chocolate chip cookies to help us get in the Christmas spirit while we decorated our tree. This is by far one of my favorite days of the year - Christmas Tree Putting Up Day.

Alexia enjoyed several cups of hot cocoa, too. I added her onesie to the to-be OxiCleaned collection of clothes piling up in our laundry room.

I love waking up to our lit tree. Although I accidentally (Ryan says "impulsively") bought the last couple sets of lights at Target and came home to find out they are twinkling lights. So half of our tree seems to have tourette's.

Here's a view of our spirited home:

(Don't wires just kill you?)

This year I finally splurged and bought a REAL tree skirt (not just a 10" diameter felt one from the Dollar Store) and even got it embroidered:

And here's the basement decor, I couldn't believe I was able to find ornaments to match the walls. Thank you Dollar Store:

And alas, my creative project inspired by my aunt who made stockings by hand and attached a jingle bell for each year of Christmas celebrated. I've always wanted to follow that tradition and her visit for Thanksgiving gave me motivation. We bought the fabric together and used the stockings I already had for Ryan and myself as the pattern for the girls'. Then I had them embroidered and ready to go for Christmas Day!